The community of men who have sex with men in Ratlam City, Madhya Pradesh: A case study on risk factors for human immunodeficiency virus infection

Abstract

Background: Not long ago, the National AIDS Control Organization awakened the matter of men who have sex with men (MSM) and incorporated it as the most important group population. Targeted interventions (TI), as projected in the NACP-III, have made dauntless efforts to launch about, that this group demands an urgent and intensive attention, indicating a significant amount of departure from its previous polices. All above-mentioned reasons prompted us to undertake this study on evaluating the risk of MSM for sexually transmitted infections. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted and all the acquired data were entered using epi info version 3.5 software and along with proper statistical procedures. Results: In the current study, 156 participants were involved, of which 90% of respondents were male and the remaining were transgender. Majority of the participants in the present study were involved in MSM activity with both regular and nonregular partners (RP)/casual partners. In the present study, 85.3% of the study participants were involved in MSM activity with a regular partner in the last 6 months, which is similar to nonregular partners reflecting high-risk activity. Conclusion: This study offers compelling evidence that MSM is more vulnerable to HIV due to a variety of variables. According to the current studies, about 37% of MSM were married. This brings up additional issues, such as the fact that women often contract HIV, because they are partners of men who are members of the population groups that are most at risk for HIV infection, such as MSM, rather than due to their own sexual behavior.